Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a brandy flask.

1859

F. Francis Newton Dogvane (1888) 184: Phew! Pass us the tea-canister .

(drugs) a marijuana smoker; also attrib.

1949		Kerouac letter 24 June in Charters I (1995) 197: I start thinking about the mad beret-characters who actually make these movies in crazy California (the tea-head Mitchums, the horn-rimmed directors).
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 28: She knew a lot of teaheads.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 96: The small-time pushers, the teaheads, the sad panhandlers.
1967		I. Rosenthal Sheeper 8: My fifteen-year-old teahead friend. [Ibid.] 187: He is [...] toking his joint like a pro, a true teahead.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1989		H. Harrison Bill [...] on the Planet of Robot Slaves (1991) 45: I am going to do a little catching up with you teaheads, dopeheads and boozeheads.
2000		Guardian Rev. 12 May 6: His hellish descent into a world of perverts [...] and wall-eyed tea-heads.

1. (orig. US black) a marijuana smoker; also attrib.

1939		P.E. Miller Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: tea hound : a marijuana smoker.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 43: They were far removed from the [...] tea-hounds of the reefer joints.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 362: Sister Lou got frantic and all in a rage, / Like a tea hound dame on some frantic gage.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 185: Tea hound A marijuana smoker.

2. see also SE compounds below.

(US) a place, e.g. a bar or club, where marijuana can be smoked.

1947

N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 149: Doc had me take him to Dreamland then, a tea joint with a cigar-store front on South Dearborn.

(US) a smoker of marijuana.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 110/1: tea-man. A reefer-man or marijuana addict.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 220/2: Tea-man. A smoker or purveyor of marijuana.
1956		(con. 1940s) J. Resko Reprieve 237: An addict is a viper, a snake, a goof, a T-man. In Dannemora we had mostly vipers.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 182: Tea hound [...] a smoker of marihuana cigarettes [...] Tea man – Same as Tea hound.

(drugs) a place for smoking marijuana.

1939		Herbert & Spencer Jitterbug Jamboree Song Book 33: teapad. anyplace where they smoked weed.
1944		LaGuardia Committee Report on Marihuana 🌐 The investigator would bring up the subject of smoking. This would invariably lead to the suggestion that they obtain some marihuana cigarettes. They would seek a ‘tea-pad,’ and if it was closed the smoker and our investigator would calmly resume their previous activity.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 315: tea-pad. A marihuana smoking den.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 240: tea pad Rooms in apartments or pup tents on the roof in Harlem where marijuana was sold and users gathered and smoked marijuana communally in the 1930s and 1940s.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Detroit Redhead’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 109: I took over Bozo’s apartment and turned it into a tea pad and thieves’ den.
2002		E. Damerson in Dusted Mag. at Trikont.com 🌐 Poring over these jazz sides now, one gets hep to the mixed emotions that fogged up the tea pad as youngsters of all sorts got their first blast.

1. a drinking binge.

1929

L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 41: Then he went on a big drunk — ‘tea parties,’ that gang called ’em.

2. (drugs) a gathering of people for the purpose of communal smoking of marijuana.

1935		D. Burley Chicago Defender 7 Dec. 17: [They] made things hot with their Sunday afternoon ‘tea parties’.
1938		Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 10 Sept. 10/7: Musicians say that the kids frequently invite them to a ‘tea’ party [...] They say the reefer habit stemmed from Harlem.
1947		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 19 July 17: The bebopper [...] has ‘tea parties’ in his little one and a halfer.
1954		(con. 1938) C. Chessman Cell 2455 111: That night they had a ‘tea party.’ Even in those days marijuana was plentiful.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 24: She had come home one morning with one of her friends after a three day tea party.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Tea Party — To smoke marijuana.

(US drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1956

S. Longstreet Real Jazz Old and New 104: He mixed with vipers on the reefer trail [...] but there isn’t much record that he went for tea-sticks himself.

(US gay) dark glasses.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 117: sunglasses [...] tea-timers.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.

(drugs) to smoke marijuana.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 194: read the tea leaves to smoke grass.

to get drunk.

1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 591: tea up, v. To become intoxicated.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 269: [She] had read somewhere that during the Alcoholic Age the Victims would tea up in order to Drown their Sorrows.

(N.Z. prison) an illegal water boiling device.

1978		G. Newbold ‘Social Organization of Prisons’ in dissertation U. Auckland 341: [A]n illegal tea-bomb short-circuited, fusing all the lights on the upper landing of A Block.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 77: Junk used to pull out his water-boiling gadget, called a tea bomb, and make up a brew of illegal tea [...] 245: Bomb (n) Illegal water-boiling device.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 185/2: tea bomb (also bomb or tea bong) n. an illegal water boiling device.

(N.Z. prison) an inmate who acts as a ‘servant’ for a senior, more influential prisoner.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 186/2: tea boy n. 1 (also tea bum) an inmate who acts as a runner or a servant for another senior inmate, and whose main role is to make cups of tea for him.

1. an evening party.

1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 77: It’s a complete nuisance to be so tall [...] if you go to a tea-fight, the people are always tumbling over your trotters, and breaking their noses, which is what young ladies ain’t partial to.
1856		Knickerbocker (NY) Nov. 534: [I] wish to hand in my experience of a small tea-fight, in which I was bombarded by a piano.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1871		Carlisle Patriot 29 Dec. 6/4: Sir Wilfred Lawson at a ‘Tea Fight’. At the annual soirée of the Kirkeswald Literary Institution [...] Sir Wilfred Lawson was one of the speakers.
1885		Observer and Freelance (Wellington) 29 Aug. 9/4: The gem of the evening at the tea-fight was a laughing duet by P. and Sally.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Aug. 5/3: One of the most famous, but exceedingly modest divines, who attended a ‘tea fight’ one evening [etc].
1891		Hull Dly Mail 30 Apr. 3/7: Wesleyan minister [...] attended an anniversary tea-fight.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Oct. 1/3: Another Tommy, by way of a gee, said it was a dead head ticket for a tea fight.
1915		Sport (Adelaide) 5 Feb. 5/1: One of the whippets from C.B. had no luck at the tea fight [...] .

2. a tea party; note ad hoc vars. in 1906, 1914 cits.

1848		Hood’s Mag. (London) 40 July-Dec. 357: Mr. Juniper Tipple did stop; and his prowess at the ‘tea-fight’ was a thing to marvel at. His eloquence was as soft and soothing as the buttered toast that hissed beside them on the hob.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 174: I don’t want to ask any old dowager I happen to fall in with at a tea-fight, whether she believes all the crammers that Herodotus tells us.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 162: On Wednesday we ’ad a tea fight.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 14: You look as if you had been at a tea-fight or muffin-worry and had taken more hot toast than was good for your digestion.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 June 3/2: The officer in question is a ‘curled darling’ at tea-fights.
1883		Northampton Mercury 6 Jan. 9/3: A Monster Blue Ribbon Tea — What was probably the largest ‘tea-fight’ that has ever taken place in Northampton was held [...] in the Corn Exchange.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 11/4: A local preacher died in the topmost fury of a tea-fight in New Zealand town, the other week. […] / He lived his life well; / His death was the quickest / On record – he fell / Where the muffins were thickest!
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 7 June 4/1: Peace, sobriety, virtue and other things will be blended with politics and tea-fights.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 53: ‘Well, kind of a tea-fight,’ he returns [...] I look to Tilda for confirmation. ‘Come to tea next Sunday?’ says the girl.
1905		Wash. Post 15 Jan. 4/3: The young man of tender years [...] has a vocabulary which would put Webster to shame [...] Sis is ‘dotty’ over her beau, chases ‘tea fights’ [...].
1906		Burra Record (SA) 25 Apr. 5/5: They Say [...] That at the next tea-fuddle a regiment of soldiers are going to patrol the Booborowie Church.
1907		Burra Record (SA) 2 Jan. 3/5: They Say [...] That with all the troubled waters at Hanson it can knock up a cheque of over £14 at it tea fight.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 134: ‘I am a man. I shall have a Club some day [...] You will only [...] go to tabby tea-fights’.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 159: If I go to the early supper there’s bound to be ham-sandwiches at the tea-fight, which I’m partial to; whereas [...] if I do go to the tea-fight there won’t be any ham at all.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Lonesome Camp’ in Ade’s Fables 263: But she had taken a peek at the Palm Rooms and the powdered Lackeys and the Tea Riot at the Plaza, and she was panting inwardly.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Uplifter’ in Ade’s Fables 100: At every Tea Battle and Cookie Carnival he was hailed as the Big Hero.
1922		E. Pound letter 4 May in Paige (1971) 176: The matter re pavilion was broached at a tea fight 3 days before I left Paris.
1927		F. Bason Diary I (1950) 33: Yesterday I went to a party [...] It was sort of a little tea fight (at four) and there were ten people there.
1932		Dover Express 11 Mar. 9/4: They say that Upper Biggin Street ought to have the customary tea fight on the completion of the repairs to their street.

(Aus.) one who attends a tea party (and by implication dislikes alcohol).

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 7/1: If these whey-blooded petitioners have their way, no man will be able to take his ease in his inn without running the risk of being hustled off to the gaol or the lunatic asylum, and the tea-fighter and muffin-worrier will reign alone in the land.

1. a man who frequents tea parties.

1915		Howitzer (West Point) 109: Leland Stanford Hobbs, Jr. — Yes, this is the pride of Jersey City, West Point's most famous athlete, shining social light, teahound, and ‘wounded hero’!
1917		O.O. McIntyre ‘New York Day by Day’ 4 Sept. [synd. col.] The wrist watch used to be the insignia of a pomaded tea guzzler, but now it sometimes means arough neck, horny fists and hair on the chest.
1920		Columbian Eve. Missourian (MO) 19 Nov. 3/4: Teahounds infesting Missouri University [...] It has but lately come to Columbia and is thought to have evolved [...] from fop, dude, lounge-lizard and couch-cootie.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 454: By golly, I need somebody like him, with [...] all these tea-hounds around me!
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 599: It’s the game for tea-hounds and parlour athletes.

2. a womanizer.

1915		Howitzer 152: He became so dainty and spoony that the farmer boy was soon lost to view, and we saw rather the apparent tea-hound and parlor-snake.
1920		O.O. McIntyre Bits of New York Life 20 Dec. [synd. col.] Husbands who should be elsewhere, and the professional tea hounds.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 15: The tea hound of a husband.
1927		M.C. McPhee ‘College Sl.’ in AS III:2 131: A student who spends much time in the society of the ladies is ‘a heavy-cake’ or ‘a tea hound.’.

3. see also sl. compounds above.

see separate entry.

(US gay) an all-woman bar catering to lesbians.

1991

(con. 1930s) L. Faderman Odd Girls & Twilight Lovers 107: A few bars congenial to lesbians still existed in the ’30s [...] There were even several ‘tea shops’that catered to lesbians on the Near North Side of Chicago.

see bun-struggle under bun n.³

see separate entry.

(US) a tea party.

1835		D. Crockett in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 7: She was at a tea-squall at one of the neighbors.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 231: One time we had a tea-squall to our house, and Susan handed about the tea.
1858		J. Brainard Lecture upon Narcotic Stimulants 12: The Boston Tea party, where the Young Gentelmen [sic] made the Tea in a hurry, with cold water, (and salt at that) [...] There were no women at that tea squall, and the men ran the thing.
1863		Yankee Notions 12 300: ‘Feast ov reson, and flo ov soal;’ I've seen this afore now, at a tea squall ov wimmin folks.
1871		R. Rowe Friends & Acquaintances 137: Theres a swell come to Hoppety's tea-squall,' said the bricklayer's labourer with a grin.

the anus.

1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: tea towel holder euph. Anus. From the 1950s plastic ‘finger poke style’ kitchen accessory.
2000		personal correspondence: tea towel holder – the anus. Derived from the fact that those round plastic holders that you push tea towels into resemble the anus.

a chamberpot.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. a phr. used to deride something, or someone, considered of little or no value, e.g. ‘Expensive? He gives them away…’.

[1885		J.M. Russell Squire’s Hat 171: The nice little stone-ware teapot ‘to be given away with a pound of tea’].
1890		Western Times 22 June 4/2: Bull’s Shopman, you see, is in generous mood, / As ‘wonderful bargains’ his wares are arrayed, / And treasures — no wonder you jump with glee! / Are ‘Given away with a Pound of Tea!’.
1891		Sporting Times 7 Feb. 4/4: Mincing Lane Friend — You deserve to be given away with a pound of tea.
1903		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 23 Aug. 3/3: ‘[w]e shall be like Chicargo, where divorces is give away with a pound o’ tea].
1903		Bath Chron. 9 Apr. 3/3: Mr Oliver exclaimed: Don’t they give them away with a pound of tea (laughter).
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 91: ‘Ellen Tommy!’ wailed the rapid marrier, ‘carn’t a man give hisself away with a pound iv tripe?’.
1924		Hull Dly Mail 19 June 4/5: What is the good of upholding an Empire that seeks to give itself away for a pound of tea.
1929		Western Morn. News 19 Apr. 11/2: The Government would find that the country would not accept Tory policy, even when given away with a pound of tea.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 273: Disparagement of a thing or a person is contained in, ‘They give ’em away with a pound of tea.’.

2. an ironic reply by a criminal to questions referring to the origins of obviously stolen goods in his possession,e.g. ‘Stolen goods, officer? No. Give them away…’.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 185: Give them away with a pound of tea, they Ironic explanation when asked to account for the possession of an obviously stolen and valuable article.

to die.

1939		T. Victor From the Abyss to the Foreign Legion 102: All that day and night the cry was going round of ‘So and So has died’; ‘He’s gone for his,’ and so on.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 204: Tea, go for your To die.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 218: He’s gone for his tea (anyone killed or after dying).

(US gay) to have sex in a public lavatory.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

(orig. Aus.) on no account, no chance whatsoever; occas. in positive use.

1895		J.S. Wood Yale Yarns 60: Haley can’t pitch for a tinker’s —.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 16/3: ‘Don’t call me your God – I wouldn’t be your blessed god for all the meat in China, old man,’ I said flippantly.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 282: ‘Can’t sing for monkey nuts!’ he said.
1929		Wash. Post 2 Sept. 6: The good word from Dade Park is Eloise, which will run for all the tea in China in the sixth cant. [Ibid.] 19 Dec. 18: Mickey D. will go for all the tea in China this aft down at Kenney Park.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 26: Some men here wouldn’t leave the place for all the tea in China.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 46: I wouldn’t let ’im see me in a thing like that. Not for all the rice in China.
1953		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 219: I’m not opening this trunk again for all the tea in China.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 121: He scared me so much that I wouldn’t have cried for all the tea in China.
1971		F. Hilaire Thanatos 181: Up yours, eunoch. I wouldn’t go to bed with you for mink.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 143: ‘Captain, aren’t you going in with me?’ Dinkle entreated. ‘Not for all the tea in China, my boy.’.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 89: A person averring that he would not be persuaded to do something by anyone says: ‘Not for King Dick I wouldn’t!’.
1995		A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 184: On she would not go for all the tea in China; no argument could shift her.

1. (Aus.) to consort with someone, to associate with someone.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1198: since ca. 1880.

2. (UK Und.) to outsmart a clever person or to defeat someone in authority.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 204: Tea with, take Act with covert impertinence towards someone (usually someone in authority), or to take advantage of someone; to outwit a clever person (not used in respect of ‘mugs’).

see tea-and-sugar adj.

(Aus.) a formal afternoon tea for a number of guests, a minor social get-together.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 32: ‘tea and tattle party’ [...] afternoon teas or tea meetings.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 240/2: tea-and-tattle – an afternoon tea or get-together.

a phr. used to indicate that there is no tea; i.e. one is simply SE turned out.

1802		Sporting Mag. Dec. XXI 163/2: In a pleasant village near the metropolis, noted for its constant ‘tea and turn out parties.’.
1829		J. Malcolm Tales of Field & Flood 133: The evening entertainments were of that kind denominated ‘Tea and Turn-out,’ — a mode of treating one’s friends having the show of hospitality, but denying the power thereof.
1836		Figaro in London 23 July 123/1: Mr. Horace Twiss invited several friends to a tea and turn-out last Tuesday. Owing to some unforeseen difficulty in the purchase of the tea [...] his friends preferred dispensing with the tea.
1844		T.H. Bailey Songs & Ballads 2 235: There’s nothing like tea-and-turn-out.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 241/2: Tea and turn out (Peoples’, 19 cent.). A roundabout way of saying there is no supper.

to make tea.

1847		R.F. Walond Paddiana I 149: Blood an’ ouns! will I wet the tay now, ma’am?
1913		A. Irvine My Lady of the Chimney Corner 184: Mary ‘wet’ a pot of tea and warmed up a few farrels of fadge.
1927		P. O’Donnell Islanders (1933) 84: Susan Manus made tea for them all, and she without knowing the joy Mary Doogan thought to take out of baking that flour and wetting that tea.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 6: Johnny’s mother had wet the tea, and was sitting thoughtfully by the fire.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 54: He was annoyed, having just wet a pot of tea for himself and his assistant.
1986		J.B. Keane Bodhrán Makers 283: Go downstairs, woman, [...] and wet us a sup of tea.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Wet the tea (v): make tea.

(N.Z.) a call to indicate that it is time for a tea-break; thus as n.

c.1944		Whitcombe’s Modern Junior Dict. 407: Tea-oh In Australia and New Zealand, an interval for tea during working hours [DNZE].
1966		Encyc. N.Z. II 679: The back country runs have quite a vocabulary of their own [...] Amongst these are [...] terms like cow paddock [...] and teaoh [DNZE].